News

Unauthorized Manga Translation Site Pulls Shonen Jump, Viz Titles

MangaStream, a website that hosts unauthorized, translated scans of manga, announced on Saturday that it is no longer hosting seven titles licensed by Viz Media in North America, in response to what it calls "aggressive and escalating" legal threats from the publisher.

MangaStream said that it will no longer host Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Hunter X Hunter, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Claymore, and D.Gray-man. All seven titles have been or were once serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan. The site's statement read: "The aggressive and escalating nature of their threats have forced our hand into removing the content. MangaStream will no longer be posting full scanlations for any of the aforementioned series, we will instead focus our efforts onto the series we do that are not licensed by Viz Media."

The site noted, however, that it will still post manga in its directory listing. That directory continues to list spinoff series from franchises that Viz has published in North America, such as Shaman King and Dragon Ball. On Wednesday, the website began posting English text summaries of the latest Japanese chapters of One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Hunter X Hunter, and Reborn.

Viz launched its weekly digital anthology Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha on January 30. Viz provided ANN with the following comment on Thursday:

Our goal at Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha is to provide the best experience possible for keeping up with the most current chapters of your favorite manga series. This unprecedented effort is an unique collaboration with the publisher of the original Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, Shueisha. Furthermore, this experience will be improved and shaped by the readership of Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. Without qualification, we treasure the support and feedback of our fans. It is only with their participation that this special collaboration between the creators, the Japanese and North American publishers, and the readership can move into the future. But our journey has just begun. We have a long way to go. By making this journey together, there is no limit to what we can do.

At Viz Media, we've taken bold measures to bring the best manga titles direct from Japan as quickly as possible. We have laid out the foundation for the digital Viz Manga platform, which can be accessed through any web browser at VIZManga.com and through the Apple iOS app store. From these beginnings, we can already feel the worlds of fans and creators coming closer together.

One thing has not changed. By reading legal, quality translations, manga fans support the manga creators directly. It is this love and support of manga fans for manga creators that will allow manga-ka to continue crafting great stories for many years to come. And it is with this support that we, the publisher, can improve and deliver more of what fans love to read.

Thanks to Rukiia and Lemursrule for the news tips.